loved us? Love worketh no ill to his neigh bour. Love, or as it is elsewhere exprefed, Charity, fuffereth long and is kind; envieth not, vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, feekerb not its own, is not eafily provoked; thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareti all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things (k). Do you fulfil the law of juftice to your neighbour by working no ill to him; by carefully abstaining from offering injury to his person, to his property, or to his good-name? Have you that love for him which fuffereth long; which is flow to take offence, unwearied in forgiveness? Have you that love which is kind: which not only abounds in acts of good will to those who have manifested friendship towards you, or gratitude for benefits received from your hand; but, like the love of your heavenly Father, who maketh his fun to fhine on the evil as well as on the good, and fendeth rain both on the just and on the unjuft, overflows in bounteousness to the unthankful and the froward? Have you that love which envieth not: which coveteth not the advantages enjoyed by any other, grudgeth not his comforts, repineth not at his welfare? Have you that love which (k) Rom. xiii. 10. 1 Cor. xiii, 4-7.

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vaunteth not itfelf: that love which prompts you in honour to prefer one another ; nourishes that diftinguished fruit of the Spirit, meekness; remembers the words of the Lord Jefus, Bleffed are the meek; reftrains you. you from an oftentatious difplay of the pre-eminence in rank, in wealth, in authority, in abilities in knowledge, with which the common Mafter of all may have entrufted you? Have you that love which is not puffed up which is clothed with humility; infpires a convic tion of our own unworthinefs; admonishes us to regard every additional degree of influence, every additional inftrument of doing good, as a talent for the pfe of which we are to render an account before the judge, ment-feat of Chrift; and thus, by reminding us of an awful refponsibility, tempers the joy excited by the acquifition with awakened circumfpection and holy fear? Have you that love which doth not behave itself unfeemly: which affumes not a demeanour unfuitable to its ftation; but conducts itself with refpectfulnefs to fuperiors, with courteoufnefs to inferiors, with modefty and gentleness to all? Have you that love which feeketh not its own: that love which extinguifheth felfishness; which perfuades you rather to submit to injuftice than either

to

to displease God, or needlessly to give offence to man; inclines you when defpoiled of your cloak, rather to furrender your coat also than to maintain your rights with paffion, or by unwarrantable methods; that love which proclaims, look not every man on his own things, but every man alfo on the things of others (/); difpofes you to confult

in all your up the benefit of others

no less than of yourfelf; and determines you cheerfully to make large facrifices of your own ease and advantage for the fake of promoting even' the earthly comforts, and more especially the spiritual interests, of your neighbour? Have you that love which is not easily provoked that love which governs the temper no less than the conduct; is not only long-suffering, unalienated by repeated injuries, but proves itfelf to be genuine by curbing every tendency to irritation, sharpnefs of humour, haftinefs of language, harthnefs of deportment? Have you that love which thinketh o evil: that love which meditates no evil; permits not any unjust or ungenerous purpofe against another to find fhelter in your bofom, and starts back with pain from every fuggeftion which tempts -(4)-Philipp. ii. 4.

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you to thwart his welfare: that love which imputeth no evil; entertains not hard thoughts of your neighbour, charges him not with unfubftantiated guilt, nor treasures up unau thorifed fufpicions against him? Have you that love which rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; that love, which bo holds with grief not merely the success, bue the very existence, of rapacity, of fraud, of malice, of flander, of every scheme and device of fin, the enemy of human happiness present and future; that love, which exults. in the triumph of righteousness, in the ma nifestation of innocence, in the establishment of truth; in every event which evinces or confirms the power of the gofpel over the hearts of men, and thus, while it redounds to the glory of God, minifters confolation: and strength to his fervants? Have you that love, which beareth all things; that love, which bears with the infirmities, whether bodily or mental, of others; dwells not upon crrors, looks not upon defects; covers, draws a veil over, vais multitude of failings; and, when they are forced upon thy notice, leads, thee to behold them with tendernefs" and pity, and without any diminution of that! affection, to which, on other grounds, thy relation, thy friend, or thy companion, is entitled

entitled from thee: and when it perceives armandovertaken with a fault, whispers to thee, neftore fuch an one in the spirit of meeknefs confidering thyfelf, left thou also be tempted (m)? Have you that love, which believeth all things; not that credulous facility, which turns away its ear from the leffons of dreafon and experience; not that blind candour which calls evil good, and confounds the diftinction established from everlafting to everlasting between him who ferveth God and him who ferveth him not: but that love, which prefuppofes uprightness where it dif cerns not evidence of iniquity; liftens with delight to any favourable interpretation of the conduct of another; puts the kindeft conftruction on fuch of his words or actions as appear ambiguous; and welcomes every circumftance which tends to prove that he has not committed the offence afcribed to him, or that, if he committed it, he has returned from the error of his ways? Have you that love which hopeth all things; that love which, where it cannot rationally believe that good exifts, encourages itself to presume that it will exift; is almoft prepared, like Abraham, against hope to believe in hope; defpairs not of the converfion of the finner, 10^{m} Gál. vi. 1.

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nor